Santa Maria del Lago (in this case Lago comes from the word âlucusâ, meaning wood or forest) was built in the twelfth century and became part of the huge Benedectine monasteriesâ property. The abbey has never been constructed next to it, but a building for the reception of monks and pilgrims was. On the lawn in front of the façade there is a big christening font made of travertine marble.
The façade is made of bricks and shows a nice stone portal decorated with symbolic figures, typical of the Benedectine style. The church has a nave and two aisles divided by 8 brick columns and 2 pillars which support round arches.
The real gem of the church is the wonderful ambo placed on the pillar on the left sculpted in 1159 by master Nicodemo on commission for Abbot Rainaldo.
The ambo is a stucco work and has a square base supported by four columns. Three arches develop from the columns and one of them is trilobate. The ambo is very rich in decorations which show the Arabian influence. The bas-reliefs represent symbolic and bliblical scenes. You can see Jonah swallowed by the whale and thrown back ashore under the castor-oil plant, David who faces a bear and a lion, and also the four evangelistsâ symbols: eagle, bull, angel and lion.
There are only a few remains of the late thirteenth century frescoes which decorated the apse. The portion still preserved depicts the Last Judgement with the twelve Apostles and Jesus Christ as judges.
The ambo is a stucco work and has a square base supported by four columns. Three arches develop from the columns and one of them is trilobate. The ambo is very rich in decorations which show the Arabian influence. The bas-reliefs represent symbolic and bliblical scenes. You can see Jonah swallowed by the whale and thrown back ashore under the castor-oil plant, David who faces a bear and a lion, and also the four evangelistsâ symbols: eagle, bull, angel and lion.